The Northern Agenda: A VERY wide load on the M53

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By ROB PARSONS - August 4 2022

A low carbon oil refinery sounds like a contradiction in terms but that's what energy firm Essar is promising at its Stanlow site in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. And it's installing the UK's first furnace capable of running on 100% hydrogen to achieve the aim.

But there's one problem as the largest part of the £45m furnace - a structure 26.5 metres long and five times higher than a double decker bus - has to come from 6,000 miles away in Thailand.

So far it's made it by ship to the Port of Liverpool before being transferred to a barge for the short trip across the River Mersey, through the locks into the Manchester Ship Canal and onto a holding bay near National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port.

But as CheshireLive reports the next step might be even more challenging, as it's moved from the canal onto the M53 motorway and then slowly and carefully for three miles to the Stanlow site.

It's been described as one of the biggest objects to be moved on UK roads and to help with the delivery National Highways is closing the M53 for a night next week.

Gordon Beattie, National Highways’ abnormal loads manager for the North West said: “There are abnormal loads and there are abnormal loads – and this one will completely fill the motorway. The module will be mounted on two wheeled platforms - one on each carriageway - and will look a bit like the bridge of a container ship gliding down the motorway."

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